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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Hush! Hush! Sweet Sarah!

"The America that I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on subjective judgment, of their "level of productivity in society", whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Sarah Palin
from her Fascism....I mean, "Facebook" page. The question is literally screaming to be posed: Can this woman possibly get any stupider? I really shouldn't be too hard on her. Sarah Palin has made my life a gut-busting delight and my work so much easier. When one has made his or her name doing what I do - mining the streams of American politics for those choice nuggets of unintentional humor - the former governor of Alaska is the gift that just keeps giving and giving. I really should not get any credit for writing the piece you are now reading. Truth be told, it is writing itself. I am also getting a good deal of aid from my brother, Jeff (photo above).

In a piece that was printed this morning in the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, NY, Richard Cohen made an excellent point - as Richard Cohen has an uncanny habit of doing. He wrote that the term "McCarthyism" should be updated by renaming it "Palinism". Joe McCarthy died in 1957 - seven years before Sarah Palin was born. The dictionary definition that old Joe gave to American politics should be updated because, essentially, he and Sarah are doing the same thing. The only difference between the two is the fact that Sarah, as far as we know, is not a drunk. Said Richard Cohen:

"Palin, as wholesome as McCarthy was not, is ready-made for television. Still, she has gone from a 57 percent favorable rating soon after McCain picked her as his running mate to a current 39 percent - a negative landslide of justifiable proportions. Before she fades into fringedom, she will do one bad thing and one good thing - hurt the very people she supposedly champions and expose the appalling opportunism of the Republican leaders."

I have to take issue with something Mr. Cohen wrote in that otherwise excellent piece: I do not want Sarah Palin to fade away into "fringedom" or any other "dom" for that matter. I don't want her to ever go away. Are you kidding me? She is the walking, talking personification of how the Republican party, once the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, has been taken over by lunatics and morons. As someone recently remarked, it is no longer a political party, it's a cult.

NOTE TO THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT:

When Jesus healed the sick, He did not disqualify anyone because of a "preexisting condition". A little something I think you might want to ponder.

HELP!! THE DEATH PANELS ARE COMING!!!
You've got to give a tip of the old hat to the American people. What could be the explanation for our positive genius for falling prey to the most blatant and obvious propaganda? I have a possible theory if you're interested in hearing it:

We're idiots.

That is the general consensus among the rest of the world. The fact that an imbecile like Our Miss Sarah can "twit" (an appropriate word if ever there was one) about something as ludicrous as "Death Panels" and within hours it is a serious part of the national dialogue shows you that something is...umm..."amiss", shall we say? I think it is almost touching that so huge a segment of the American people are so susceptible to such nonsense - touching but hardly surprising. Let's not forget that these are the same people who just nine years ago were hypnotized into believing that sending a half-witted frat boy like George W. Bush to the White House was a perfectly fine and dandy idea. Are you surprised that most of the American public are swallowing the bait hook, line and sinker? You shouldn't be. You really shouldn't.

For the first time in our history, we are within grasp of the type of national health insurance that has worked beautifully in merrie old England for over sixty years. Don't let them try to fool you into believing that it hasn't worked Over There. It has. If the British health care system is so bloody awful, why has it been adopted by every other nation (but ours) in the industrialized world? And here's another tasty little question to munch on: why is it that the English live, on average, two years longer than we do? Can it be the fish 'n' chips? I kind of doubt it.

To listen to Sarah Palin and the bloviators on the right put it, Canadians and Europeans despise their health care system. Oh, really? My brother Pete has lived in Toronto for a decade. "Not true", says he. Brother Jeff has lived in Europe for almost twenty years. "Not true", says he.He went into a little more detail exclusively for you lucky Rant readers. Like his older brother, he's a tad long-winded. In Jeff Degan's own words:

HELL CARE

"As an American who has been living in Europe for most of the last 20 years, one who has visited doctors numerous times in four different countries, whose two children were brought into this world in European hospitals (France and England), who has himself spent a week in a public British hospital, and who underwent an operation in a private British clinic, I think I can say a thing or two about health care in Europe.

"Our out of pocket expenses for the births? Zero. Even though in France my wife spent 5 days in the hospital after the birth of our first daughter, which is standard by the way.

"During the three years we lived in England, we never once paid for medicine for our children. Children get drugs for free in the UK. Visits to the GP are free for everybody.

"My expenses for the week in the NHS hospital? Zero.

"The cost of the operation in the private clinic? Zero, it was covered by my work insurance, as was the post-op physical therapy I needed.

"In Western Europe you would never be forced to sell your home in order to pay for your medical bills, as happens all too often in America when catastrophic illness strikes and the insurance company decides that your condition was 'pre-existing'.

"The quality of the care? Mostly good. French hospitals are excellent, even the food is decent. The food at the NHS hospital was beyond awful, but then again most English food is pretty bad (though they do have great Indian food). At night, they were understaffed, but I am guessing that, apart from that place where Dr. House works, most American hospitals are understaffed at night, too.

"In short, in the US, you pay more, get less, and die younger than we do in Europe. What part of that don't you understand? "My fellow Americans, you have nothing to fear except those who would use fear to keep you enslaved to the myth of the might of the American health care system."

Jeff Degan

What can I tell you? The guy is a Communist. Not only does he live in France, he actually likes it there. An eternal shame to the good name of the Degan family. Let us boil down his seven paragraphs to their juicy essentials, shall we?

HEALTH CARE IN THIS COUNTRY SUCKS. Here is (Excuse me, I meant to say, "Here was") a golden opportunity for real reform and the idiotic Americans are screaming about socialism. Is it any wonder that we have become the laughingstock of the Western world?

In the mean time, our gal Sarah will continue to twit away. That is as it should be, I suppose. She really is doing us a great service when you think about it. She is aiding and abetting her party's complete and utter spiral into irrelevance.

YOU GO, GIRL!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

AFTERTHOUGHT:

The photograph to the left of this column is of my French-loving, Pravda-reading brother, Jeff. Note the Vladamir Lenin goatee. Shameful.

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

SICKO
a film by Michael Moore

For more recent postings on this hideously subversive site, please go to the following link:

47 Comments:

Wait - I'm a revolutionary war fan - the proper side - the "all men are created equal" side, remember that, anybody?

Okay - so I've worked in healthcare for over 20 years and let me tell you - I know according to the health care companies and hospitals despite pleas from good doctors just doing what they were trained and love do all men are not created equal. If you have the right insurance, you can stay in a hospital - acute care or mental health - you can stay there for the time required to get better and live your life normally...if you do not have the insurance or the right amount of money or if the stay is not (ahem) "medically necessary" ...the insurance companies refuse to pay...and the money guys and gals at the hospitals want you out as quickly as possible....end of story.

This has to change...all men and women are created equal and should have equal care...I'm sure Ms. Palin has great health care.

But Obama is evil...cue the Darth Vader music...boy, I didn't know that giving Americans good healthcare is a bad thing...giving them something that can afford...that's bad?

Sarah Palin is a year younger then me...and much more successful...I didn't apply myself...or apply enough makeup...or something...

Hi Tom,Stupidity is rampant, no doubt about it. One thing that puzzles me is that on reading some of the twits from the twit or the tweets from the Alaskan bimbo, they seem too intelligent, articulate and well written to be coming from her pen, which raises the question, who is ghostwriting this crap for her?

They know that this stuff is simply lies and inaccurate information. Now, with all apologies to Harry from Ma before he reads this, goes ballistic and has a coronary, this is meant as humor: but, what if in response to Miz Palin and her cronies, one was to say "I am in favor of death panels because I don't want my tax money going to raise her handicapped baby?" Can you imagine the uproar?

Hey Anonymous. Who would be the greatest fraud of our time? Not Bush, surely. His "I'm a uniter, not a divider" bullshit notwithstanding, he delivered to his constituents - the rich got immensely richer. Tony Blair? Now there was a fraud. No more a socialist than Bush and his minions. He should be hanged, drawn, and quartered and his head put on a pike at Tower Bridge.

Does anyone seriously think that the evil establishment wants our citizens to have access to affordable or free health care ?? If some capitalist pigs aren't making an obscene profit on the misfortune of peoples illnesses they think their sick little game they call life in Amerika has been lost. We only exist in the establishment's eyes when we have something they can take from us. Giving us what we are entitled to as humans on Earth.......that thought never enters their warped, greedy minds !! It all goes back to capitalism being a bad idea, a horrible system for human beings to have to endure. We have to change our misguided values before meaningful health care reform can occur !!

I totally and unequivocally agree with you Ellis. Access to affordable health care will never occur. Neither the Republican or Democratic leadership has any intentions of allowing this to happen. As Joe Bageant's always whimsical, and never disappointing, portrayal of the current healthcare debate makes clear, our elected Congress, along with this sitting president, is tied to big insurance like "Siamese twins, joined at the hip. [T]hey share the same goal, preservation of control -- the government's social control and the corporations' economic control. And you cannot have one without the other. Obama got elected on hope of reform, despite that one cannot reform a mafia, only pay increased extortion moneys. He's fortunate that it was not a genuine demand for reform, just hope. We're fortunate we did not demand reform because we're not going to get it. Obama doesn't have to reform the healthcare industry mob. All he has to do is look like he took a shot at it, and hope it's convincing enough. What we've seen is probably his best shot, too."

The theatrical effects of the last few weeks have been entertaining, haven't they? The "death panels", the screaming mobs at town-hall meetings, the gun-toting protesters; all have managed to convince us that, yes, something's going to get done -- finally. Certainly, with all this attention, nothing else could be, right? All-to-often, as expressed by Mr. Bageant, in "the corporately managed theater state, it's not whether a thing is true that matters, but how it sounds and looks and what you call it."

Tom, do you really believe that the majority of the American people buy the death panels bull? It is disappointing to see that the only, shall I say less than promising, opposition to the democrats is spouting off truly unbelievable crap. However, finding fault with Palin and the republicans doesn’t have anything to do with the Obama administration and their plans for healthcare “reform”. From the moment I read a synopsis of the stimulus bill, I knew Obama and his cronies were full of shit and not to be trusted. I simply don’t believe or trust any of them. So why would I want politicians and the government having any more control over my life than they already do? They aren’t looking out for me, rather their financial backers and, in turn their, re-election.

TOM, please tell me you really dont believe this mindless bs you write, you are a shame to all good americans, you and all your deocrat liberal fools, the stupidity of liberals is actually annoying, if you people only had a brain, youd be dangerous. sit and watch as obama destroys our country and you dont even realize it.

Ah ha! They use universal health care to turn their children into drug addicts! I knew it!

Next you'll be admitting that the Brits round up their white female teenagers and force them to procreate with dark-skinned foreigners, then forge birth certificates for the resulting offspring and plant them all over the world in preparation for Return of the British Empire.

Like the lady who I proudly borrowed this endearment/nickname from, I cannot sit idly by when someone goes after a friend without thinking first.

I'm sure Tom and some others here reading this blog and these comments know who exactly "Dearest Friend" was...and how strongly she felt about the new nation her husband was forming with the help of open-minded indviduals he worked closely with.

I know she would be outraged if her parents, children or husband were denied appropriate healthcare or for that matter any other service that helped humanity due to the powers that be deciding if they had enough money or were the few who should have it...for whatever reason.

Like that most excellent lady, I work hard every day to do what I do and find time to educate myself about the truth and stand by my friends and family when they are right.

I am successful that I am loved by a good man, have a mother who is going strong and who doesn't take bs from anyone at 80, a family that has been in this country over 260 years and has always spoken their minds and their conscience when need be.

A high political office or a ton of money or even a paegeant win does NOT always equal success.

oh yes...and I am an English major slowly trying to find my way through college - however...someone decided to put that out of reach for most Americans too...hmm...

As an English major I can vouch for the fact that STUPIDER is indeed a word...

Okay Hans, put a lid on it. If you want to get into a discussion of illiterate, obviously you know nothing of capitalization and the proper use of apostrophes.

Actually, I am surprised that such an admirer of Palin as you seem to be would not realize that her name is spelled Sarah and not Sara (your posting # 3) and perhaps you could explain "deocrat liberal fools" from your posting # 4.

You are correct when you say that stupidity is actually annoying; the knife cuts both ways; stupid liberals and stupid conservatives.

Nice to see that the same anonymous trolls are at work here proving that our higher infant mortality and higher TB mortality is caused by how many fat people we have -- while ignoring that our lifespans continue to lengthen. The Brits are plenty fat - they just have better health care.

He's been trying that pathetic and unsupported line on me for a while

At least I don't have to feel like I'm hogging all the idiots. You do have your share.

As an Englishman resident in the UK, I wouldn't say that "national health insurance that has worked beautifully".

But it has to be a darn site better than the no-national health insurance in the USA as life expectancy rates demonstrate.

I myselkf fractioned an arm at the age of 9 which led to Volkmann's ischemia. This was corrected by an operation which was free when I was 13, as a result of which I have the almost complete use of the fingers of my left hand.

Thanks for the great rant. I, too, enjoy Ms. Palin's twits and hope that she runs for President in 2012. That, indeed, would be a treat for us all. I don't believe she is capable of learning enough world history, Constitutional law and current events if given even 100 years. Then again, that didn't stop our infamous Frat Boy from ruining the world.

My question on the health care debate is this: employers, businesses and government entities are prohibited from discriminating against people with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Why are insurance companies allowed to discriminate in this manner?

I have lived with a "pre-existing" condition since age 10. All my life, it has been a scramble to find good jobs with group coverage. If I were to lose my coverage, I can not BUY an insurance policy for all the love and money in the world. You see, insurance companies don't make money off people with conditions- they profit from the healthy. They take your money happily until you became ill, and then look to get rid of you. I have even read some employers will not hire smokers and overweight people because of the damage it does to their premiums. Where does the discrimination stop???

This has become a civil rights issue. The people with health conditions live under this double edged sword: we must have insurance to survive, but we can not buy insurance in the "free" market.

Please don't think I am some weak feeble person. I am robust and healthy, and a very productive employee. I work in the HR Dept for a company IN the Healthcare industry. I know all the dirty secrets that the insurance industry doesn't want you to know about, and for which they pay our politicians very well to keep.

So when this half-witted woman from Alaska highjacked the entire healthcare debate, she basically sentenced many people to the "death panels" of the insurance industry.

Don't ever take a drink of clean, sanitary water from a public fountain, or drink the water provided by your favorite eating establishment. Most likely, it's treated and distributed through a water treatment plant and distribution network. At the other end...

Don't ever flush after visiting the water closet at that same favorite eating joint, or even at home, because unless the water is provided by a private well, and empties into a private septic system, your crap has to go somewhere to be treated and dispensed in a sanitary and economical way.

So it's apparent to me, Hans, that you don't know your ass from a hole-in-the-ground, which is just where you'd be leaving your crap if it weren't for the government-provided service of waste-water treatment.

One last note, Hans. I'm sure it would be okay with you if all the libraries were closed. I have a feeling you've never been in one.

I have said this before.....if we must have capitalism as our economic foundation so be it. BUT let's raise the " floor " regarding our standard of living. If all citizens have the basic human needs provided for ( food, shelter, health care etc. ) then let the materialists gather as much wealth and be as greedy as they want......as long as it is not at the expense of everyone else !!! The rich can play " my boat is bigger than your boat " all they want, provided that the less fortunate aren't forced to eat shit and die !! See how simple this really is folks ?? Eliminate unmitigated greed !!!!

George W. Bush set the standard for being willfully vicious and stupid, and now there are many Republicans out their trying to live up to George W. I guess that is the United States' punishment for re-electing such a bad President.

Is debate cool? Well, as the great Barney Frank said when confronting one of the town hall nutcases, having a conversation with the likes of Hans, or Palin, or Bachmann, or a birther, or a deather, etc is "like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it."

I am Australian born, American by naturalization. I came to this country at the age of 51 in 1998 and was stunned by the nonexistent health care system in this country. Like the UK, Canada and Europe, Australia also has a national health system. Having a number of chronic health problems and undergoing multiple surgeries in Australian hospitals, I never had to pay a penny for hospitalization. Prescriptions that are covered by NHS cost me no more than $4.50 at most (although I hear that the price has increased in recent years, it is still within the reach of even the poorest Australians.) And the standard of care in Australian hospitals is equal to the best I've seen here.Yes if you look for flaws in the system, I'm sure you will be able to find some but the bottom line is that no Australian has to die because they cannot afford health care.In this country I am fortunate that my husband spent 21 years in the military and is a Vietnam veteran and is thus entitled to the military medical insurance, for which he pays a moderate yearly fee and we both receive good health care. If he did not have this coverage, with my chronic health conditions we would either have to leave the country or let me die.I'm one of the very few lucky ones and only because my husband chose to risk his own life as a medic on the battlefields of Vietnam and managed to survive. My heart goes out to all of those who suffer because decent medical treatment is beyond their financial reach. In the richest country on earth (if we are still able to claim that title) it is not only a tragedy, it is a profound disgrace.

Why do you guys want free health care? Is it just because you can't afford it that is why you need free health care?

Nearly half the Americans are on welfare, medicare, food stamps, and all other government funding that WE HARD AMERICANS are already paying for these lazy people and yet you want to make these people even more lazier by giving them free health care. WOW... everyone is screaming shape up America but look what some of the reasons America can"t shape up because people just wants hand out.

It's frightening that the insane economics of your current healthcare system are poisoning the terms of debate.

The USA currently spends around 16% of its GDP on healthcare. The UK spends around 8%. In dollar terms, we spend less than half per head than you do. All the so-called "socialized" European systems are massively more efficient and cost-effective than the US system.

For that, we get 100% of the population covered. The UK has a higher life expectancy than the USA, and a lower infancy mortality rate. (And our figures are nowhere near the best in Europe).

The above macro figures indicate there is an absolutely vast amount of waste within the current American system, not counting all the profits, dividends etc the health insurance cartel has to deliver to its shareholders.

Taxes will increase to pay for universal healthcare, but will be offset by not having to pay health insurance (and probably most people's increased taxes will be far less than they are paying in insurance currently, making them a net gain).

It seems a tragedy America's health and economy are being held to ransom by profiteering scoundrels. It is frightening to make a change, but will be beneficial for all if you do (excepting of course the scoundrels and their political stooges). I wish you all the best of luck.

I'm right of center, but I enjoy reading your blog. I, too, am disheartened by some folks using distinct political categories as swear words for anyone who disagrees with them (socialist, communist, fascist, etc.) I saw the f-word (fascist) slip in your blog, but you corrected that, so it's ok.

But, exaggeration aside, isn't it true that if several million folks go on the public option, a government bureaucrat will ration care and decide if a procedure is needed? What makes that bureaucrat more reliable or generous than an insurance company bureaucrat?

That's what's at stake in this debate, because the implication is that private insurance can't compete with the public option, which must be temporarily handicapped to make things "fair," and ultimately people will see the light and all will be a big happy family with the public option, except those with great work insurance packages. Which means most folks will rely on government bureaucrats for rationed care.

So the question is, do you trust the government more than you trust a private insurer, and why?

Tom you are amazing me, where have you been hiding, I'm so glad I found this my newest most favorite blog! Please tell me so I can relax the next 4 yrs, the repugs aren't coming back are they?? Please say they won't!! Sue

The NHS has flourished in the UK for 61 years, through both left and right wing governments. Recent surveys have shown that 80% of British voters would not vote for a party who wanted to abolish or otherwise harm the NHS.

The last Tory government was voted out in 1997 partly because of their perceived failure with the NHS. The current Tory leader David Cameron is going out of his way to assure voters the NHS is safe in Tory hands (not helped by the likes of Daniel Hannan slagging it off on Fox news). David Cameron's son was profoundly disabled and received care through the NHS before he tragically died last year.

The truth is, a public option healthcare system is more responsive to public criticism than the US healthcare insurers currently are. US citizens seem to have little choice other than their employer's insurance scheme, and the insurers themselves are responsible to their shareholders first and foremost. Unlike most capitalist concerns, they seem to be able to treat their end users quite badly and get away with it. In the UK we have redress through the vote, and also public activism against NICE, the body charged with evaluating the effectiveness of medical treatment. Just recently NICE changed its policy on some advanced cancer drugs as a result of public pressure.

In the UK, a private healthcare insurance system does exist (I myself have been insured by 2 of my employers in the past). The premiums are very reasonable indeed compared to typical US premiums.

In response to " Anonymous " I find it odd that so many people think that a society providing for basic HUMAN needs such as food, shelter and health care could be categorized as " hand outs " !! What exactly is the consideration ( I'm using this word in the legal contract law sense )for citizens obeying the law if they get nothing in return other than being exploited and mistreated ?? In reality having these basic HUMAN needs provided for is a RIGHT and not a PRIVILEGE. Maybe if it is looked upon in that manner it will become more obvious that what we have in Amerika is a failure of consideration for the social contract, which should serve to keep our society a civilized one. This failure of consideration stems from the GREED of the people in control, pure and simple !!

What is socialism anyway? I hear this thrown around alot lately. Mostly by my right-winged friends and co-workers. Well here's some examples of socialism. First there's our Police Department, our Fire Department, and Medicare and Medicaid, and don't forget the Post Office. I think everyone would agree these are pretty good things and hey they are government ran. Now I am not for total government control at all but Universal Healthcare with a public option sounds pretty good (especially when your insurance is crappy and costs a good chunk of your paycheck). And I have to say I am amazed at people who say its unfair to the Healthcare Industry, you know having to compete with Universal Healthcare; and with Government ran Healthcare we will have rationed care. WE HAVE RATIONED CARE now. Right now Insurance Companies are God over our Healthcare. They decide who gets treatment and who does not. And its all business. They are a business and they are looking to make a profit, and they make a very nice profit at our expense (there's your Death Panels).

Sarah Palin is an embarrassment to my party and my country. What kills me is how she leaves the office of governor long before her term is up and she states she is not a quitter. Watch this idiot milk every penny she can from the situation.